Senator Alan Peter Cayetano reiterated his belief the Senate should decide once and for all to either radically fund the K to 12 program or abolish it entirely.

Earlier, during a plenary session, Cayetano pointed out that a decade of poor implementation of the K to 12 program only worsened the education crisis, leaving students with overcrowded classrooms and insufficient resources.

Cayetano also recalled that lawmakers had promised that General Education (GE) subjects would be transferred to the high school so that students can take the college courses for three years instead of the usual four years.

“That is why I think the task of the 20th Congress is really the radical change that is needed in the education sector,” said Cayetano, who chairs the Senate Committee on Higher, Technical and Vocational Education.

“Let’s make the hard decisions and put our money where our mouth is,” he said.

Cayetano said that when the K to 12 was introduced a decade ago, he warned then that the program would fail if teacher shortages, the lack of facilities, and funding gaps would not be addressed.  

The senator said he deemed it more appropriate if the government reverts back to the usual program of having Grades 1 to 6 years and 1to 4 years for high school with all facilities complete.

“Would we rather have just grades 1-6 and years 1-4 for high school with all facilities complete or two more years with inadequate facilities? Adding two more years would further add to this burden and could trigger an increase in the number of dropouts,” he said.

Eventually, he said his prediction was correct as the learning outcomes showed the Philippines still lagging behind regional peers despite the extended curriculum.

This is why Cayetano said he is proposing a P200 billion to P500 billion annual investment to finally deliver not just on K to 12’s promises but also resolve the systemic problems in basic education.

The amount, according to the lawmaker, is just a fraction of the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) P1 trillion budget.

“Do you want to end the lack of classrooms in a year? If per classroom costs P1 million, that accounts to only P165 billion — almost half or two-thirds of the DPWH budget,” Cayetano said.